$11.3M verdict after a shopper tripped on a curb seam in a store parking lot
The defense's best offer before trial was $250,000.
Amount awarded by the jury $11,391,183 Orange County Circuit Court (Ninth Judicial Circuit) · October 17, 2025 · Orange County, Florida
An Orange County jury awarded $11,391,183.28 to a 44-year-old woman who fell in the parking lot of a national retail chain store in a shopping center in Winter Garden.
She fell on December 23, 2019, while carrying her child and walking past a landscaping island to avoid holiday traffic and puddles. She missed the seam where the asphalt met the concrete gutter of a curb, which her lawyers described as an unmarked, abrupt change in elevation that violated building codes. She broke her left ankle and fractured her right tibia, fibula and lateral malleolus, and she needed surgery with hardware she will carry for life.
She sued the store’s operator and the company that owns the shopping center. The jury found the defendants 90 percent at fault. The reports do not say who bore the remaining 10 percent or whether the award was reduced by it. Her lawyers said the defense’s highest offer before trial was $250,000.
We have not found a report of post-trial motions or an appeal.
Source: Orange County Circuit Court, 2021-CA-000145-O, verdict October 17, 2025; WFTV 9, October 29, 2025; Law360, October 21, 2025
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Not legal advice. Southeast Verdicts reports public court outcomes and news coverage. Parties are anonymized. Amounts are as reported at the time of the verdict or settlement and may have been reduced, appealed or not collected.
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Published by Dan Wentz
Commercial insurance producer in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in coverage for commercial real estate owners.